Home

Basics

UK is overall a very tolerant and welcoming country and friendly to immigrants & visitors from all parts of planet. UK (along with U.S. and Europe) donates a lot of money for Developing Parts of planet, which is often neglected in sensational news hungry media reports. In author’s opinion , UK scores much higher on Human Rights Protection Scale than many other countries the author has visited so far. If you wish to further enhance your knowledge about UK’s efforts for the developing and under-developed parts of the world then please checkout the following websites
http://www.aidsportal.org
http://www.dfid.gov.uk
http://www.myplatform2.com
http://www.developments.org.uk

Note: If you are a vegetarian, you should always ask before buying any food item as name of some food items can be misleading. e.g Cheese Burger and many Mc Donald’s Milkshakes (e.g. Strawberry) are also Not VEG.
Veg marked Sandwiches here can have Eggs. There are two kinds of vegetarian terms used here
1) Vegetarian – No-Meat, But Egg is OK and products from Animal Milk are also OK.
2) Vegans – Only Plant products, NO Meat, NO FIsh, No Animal Product like Eggs or Milk, Yogurt etc.

Text Advertisement
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Checkout some really cool apps from SuperHitApps.com to help you find interesting & like minded people to meet.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What you might call Vegetarian In Asia is actually known as Hindu-Vegetarian (food option offered in most flights) here.

Emergency No is 999 here. (112 in europe). When you call 999, Operator asks for police or ambulance? If you say Police then call is transferred to Police Department. If you find understanding their accent difficult then you can always ask them to let you talk to someone who speaks Spanish/Portuguese/Chinese/Hindi etc.

Etiquettes

What is considered rude/inconsiderate/anti-social/taken-for-granted here (Grooming yourself for UK Culture and Social/Office Climate):-

Well every culture is different! Something which can mean “thumbs-up” in one country can mean “derogatory” in other. There are some habits/physical gestures which can be pretty normal/ok in your continent/country but here they are not liked.

1) You need to say “thank you” for every little favor! For Ex:- Cab driversKingRoot App for Android here are not supposed to handle your luggage or put it in/take it out from boot of their cab. So when they do it, they expect a “thank you”. When driving, in a face to face road block situation, if someone lest you go first, they expect a “thank you” gesture in form of raising palm of your hand. The superstore counter guy/girl packs your stuff for you in carry bags, they too expect a “Thank You”. Basically, nobody is a servant here. They are doing their job and for the extra nice things they do, they expect an appreciation back.
2) Honking Horn Anywhere! Breaking the Q when stuck in traffic jam, crossing roads without proper signal is all considered Rude and Uncivilised!
3) Shouting, playing loud music in tube/bus. Always check the volume of your earphone/headphone. Don’t stare at people/girls in tube/bus. Especially don’t stare at girls here. Its Not OK here. They might find it disturbing or irritating and might change the seats because of you. Try to giveup your seats for elderly or pregnant ladies. Click Here for Tube Etiquettes
4) Breaking the Q anywhere – Bank, postoffice, BUS Q, Ticket counter Q, Cash/ATM Machine Q ( Stay 2 steps behind the person on cash machine). You need to arrive at time if any friend/colleague is waiting. LateComing is totally totally not liked here. So always give yourself 15-30 mins grace time for Tube/metro/buss/traffic/TicketQ issues.
5) Mobile not silent in Cinema. Picking calls in Cinema is totally disliked here. I will say again. Don’t pickup calls in Cinema and don’t obstruct other’s view by sitting high. While watching movie, when you change sitting posture, don’t push the chair of person sitting infront of you. Its highly irritating. Also if you are one of those whoss legs vibrate during the movie, please don’t do that as it vibrates all the seats linked with your seat because the base of seats is usually connected with each other. Also don’t talk during the movie, that is so normal in some other countries, but is considered disgusting behaviour here.
6) Overtaking someone sharply when driving. Overtaking someone sharply when walking.
7) Pushing/Shoving in Tube, Bus, Shops especially places where buffet food is served.
8) Sneezing/Coughing without covering your mouth. Never go to your office when you have flu or cough n cold. Coughing disturbs other in office and is not taken as Normal. You are expected to take cough syrups or soothing lonzenges to keep the volume of your coughing in control.
9) Letting the (office/venue/lift) door shut on person coming behind you.
10) Picking things at display in shops and not putting them back nicely where they are.
11) Never treat a Waiter/Server in a rude way. Order anything with respect. “1 bacardi please” is Ok. “1 bacardi” isn’t OK.
12) Always greet old people in parks with a smile. Always meet superstore counter staff with a smile. Don’t forget to say “Thanks, good bye!” when leaving.
13) Don’t ask for emailid/ telephone nos from strangers in first meeting. Don’t ask personal Qs. Don’t give out judgemental remarks based on someone’s choices. Don’t peep into neighbour’s windows. Don’t make noise after 11pm in night. In multi-floor buildings, be considerate of people living on floor below you.
14) Don’t pickup/touch others’ kids without their permission. Don’t offer them candy etc in their care-taker’s absence.
15) Don’t frown when you don’t like/want something. Frowning comes so natural to some people but here in UK its considered as display of disgust/repulsion.
16) Don’t stand with arms folded together. Its usually a Club Bouncer’s posture and is considered aggressive here.
more will be updated soon..

To find out any location in UK based on postcode or street name click www.maps.google.co.uk
To find out any local business like, Surgeries (GP), Nursing Homes, Plumbers, B&B etc click www.yell.co.uk.
To find out about your neighbourhood safety records etc see here http://www.upmystreet.co.uk

A little Note on Racism: Don’t be afraid to seek help from Police. Police here is your friend. They are very friendly chaps. You should report to them any racist comment/incidence happened to you without any fear. Although most visitors/tourists have a very pleasant stay in UK with rarely any mildly-racist remark/comment made at them. London is most diverse place on planet and so least racist in UK, countryside areas in UK can have a few less-educated ppl who might spoil your day by making a mildly racist remark, overall British people are very friendly and decent people. UK Law provides you protection and compensation for every wrong thing. You should also be careful about saying a remark about any other ethnic person. London is world’s most diverse city and every ethnic person here has equal rights.
Govt Report- What Qualifies As Racism?
How to Report Racist Incident In Central London – Westminster Council

Useful Info For Pharmacists

Following UNIs run conversion Courses so that Foreign Pharmacy Graduates can register with RPSGB as a Pharmacist. To work in UK as a Pharmacist, which is a lucrative job sector, one needs to do either a conversion course or full course from a UK Uni/College :-
1)Brighton
2)Birmingham
3)Sunderland
4) Robert Gordon Uni in Aberdeen, Scotland

Good Places to do Full UK Pharmacy Course :-
1) The London School of Pharmacy – UCL – http://www.pharmacy.ac.uk
2) Kings College London
3) Portsmouth

Psychology/Psychologist

The British Psychological Society is the society one needs to register to work as a psychologist in United Kingdom.

BPS has different grades of membership:-

http://www.bps.org.uk/membership/grades/grades_home.cfm

If one is a Student, he/she can get student membership and then continue his/her study in the field.

To Practice Psychology in UK, one needs to get Graduate Membership (GBR) and this is same for overseas/home student. Following link shows Graduate Membership details:-

http://www.bps.org.uk/membership/overseas-info/overseas-info_home.cfm

Overseas students at times have to do a conversion course to obtain GBR, following link shows various courses at undergraduate & post graduate level including conversion courses:-

http://www.bps.org.uk/careers/accredited-courses/accredited-courses.cfm

Conversion courses details can be seen on the following link:-

http://www.bps.org.uk/careers/accredited-courses/accredited-courses.cfm?action=conversion

Pharmacist

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) is the society one needs to register to work as a Pharmacist in United Kingdom.

This link details about registration process for overseas applicants:-

http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/registrationandsupport/registration/registrationfromothercountries.html

Other Medical professions

HPC deals with registration of various medical professions, details about registration process for various professions can be found on the following link:-

http://www.hpc-uk.org/aboutregistration/professions/

Useful Info For Nurses

This section will be updated soon

Authors:-

1)To contact the author to add more useful info (e.g. PG Acco Nos, Websites) to this Guide please email
helpguide @ IAmNewToLondon.com

Version 1:- 03rd Jul 2008
Version 2:- 05th Jul 2008
Version 3:- 10th Jul 2008
Version 4:- 31st Jul 2008
Version 5:- 31st Aug 2008

Comments are closed.